A Seattle Man Accused of Making Racist Threats Will Be Detained Until Trial
A suburban Seattle man accused of a months-long campaign of phoning racist threats to businesses across the country — including threatening to shoot Black customers at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York — has been ordered detained pending trial.
Joey George, 37, of Lynnwood, was arrested last week and was in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Monday for a detention hearing. According to prosecutors, George phoned a Buffalo grocery store twice in July threatening to shoot Black people and ranting about a “race war.”
He did not call the same Tops Friendly Supermarket in Buffalo where a shooter killed 10 Black people on May 14, but he referenced that attack in his threat, prosecutors said. A 19-year-old white man with ties to white supremacy has pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges in that case.
